Busy week ahead for more than a dozen new California members of Congress

Kitty Felde

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California is sending 14 freshmen to Congress. It will be a busy week for the new kids on the Hill.

The official swearing in isn’t until Thursday. That’s when the phones get turned on, emails are assigned, websites are launched, and new members are officially allowed to start moving into their offices.

Republican Congressman Jeff Denham of Fresno, who starts his sophomore term in 2013, says the best piece of advice old timers gave him was to document those first crazy days.

"Everything in that first couple of weeks happens so quick," he says. "If you don’t have things documented or pictures, you forget a lot of it."

Back in 1979, then-freshman member Dan Lungren took a picture of his kindergarten-age son sitting at his Congressional desk. He recreated the same shot last week.

"I brought his son, my grandson Jack, who is now 5 years old, and sat him in the same spot and took the picture."

Lungren won’t be returning to Congress. Freshman Ami Bera of Sacramento defeated him in the November election.

Previously in Represent!

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